Question about Performa 6360 power issue

[mloret]

Good afternoon! So I have taken a hiatus from my vintage machines for about 1/2 a year. I decided to fire up the old machines last night in preparation for the two newest members (soon to be) of the family--a Commodore Amiga and an Atari Lynx console. When I plugged up my Performa 6360, it made a sparking sound at the outlet/surge protector, but it powered on and booted no problem. After a bit, I powered it off at the button in the rear, and that's when the problems started. It wouldn't turn on again! When I would hit the soft restart button on the keyboard, it would sound like it was turning on, but there would be no chime and the green light in the front panel wouldn't come on. Of course the machine wouldn't boot. I tried a couple of things, but no change. However, this morning, I hit the power button on the keyboard and it came right on!

So does anyone with more knowledge than I have any idea what happened? I was thinking that there was something of a power surge in the machine and that some sort of safety mechinism prevented the machine from booting up for a time period--until this morning. Or maybe I created the problem by forcing the machine off using the button in the back? But what do I know? Any other ideas? I also wonder if the issue is somewhere in the PSU? Maybe it needs a recap?

Any guidance is appreciated.

ML

 

[joshc]

Performa 6xx / LC 6xx machines do need their power supplies recapping. Those units are not particularly high quality. personally if going to the effort I’d look at doing an ATX conversion instead.

 

[mloret]

Hello and thank you for responding! Can you tell me what you mean by an ATX conversion?

 

[GRudolf94]

That would be replacing the power supply with a generic one from a modern computer - not an easy endeavor in a 6360 due to the custom form factor (even if the weird wiring can be worked around). Your original PSU still works enough that it is probably easily fixable by replacing the capacitors, which do degrade over time and are a common issue in all old computers. That will, of course, require disassembly, respect for mains-powered components, and soldering.

 

[pizzigri]

I did that, replaced the psu in my old 6200 with the guts of a brand new SFX form factor unit I purchased from Amazon for 27 Euro. The effort is almost the same as recapping the original psu but with vastly superior results. The original psu is incredibly crappy so that not one I found ever actually worked. Plus, it will provide a LOT more power than the paltry 58w of the original….

 

[Forrest]

Info on an ATX to 10 pin adapter for Macs https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/iici-etc-atx-to-10pin-adapter.43391/

 

[GRudolf94]

Info on an ATX to 10 pin adapter for Macs https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/iici-etc-atx-to-10pin-adapter.43391/

That would be my adapter

However, it does not fit the machine here discussed - 6360s use a 14 pin plug into the chassis harness, plus an auxiliary plug.

 

[pizzigri]

Actually, I had followed the instructions in this thread:
Sfx to quadra 630/6200
and I added the relevant 3v rails for a 6500 board.